Month: November 2013

From the Vaults: Jenna Jarvis

by Jenna Jarvis

Jenna Jarvis discusses the car crash that was the inspiration for her poem in Issue XV.

When I received the Puritan editorial team’s comments on “Untoward,” they suggested that I swap the original title, “Poem-Story,” for something more spin-worthy. But this blog post is a story about a poem.

Jigsaw Noir

by Jason Freure

Cory McCallum and Matthew Daley’s noir world starts off like any other: a city of dark towers in the middle of a heatwave, and something big is going on that nobody can solve but a rough-around-the-edges private investigator. The Pig Sleep features Mr. Monitor, a monitor lizard in a sleuthing hat,

“A Gesture That Warms”

by Jess Taylor

The Tenth in a Series on Toronto Literary Readings.

In this series of articles, the focus has been on formal events and series in the city, but more informal literary events also make up a good portion of the literary community. “There’s a different behavioural code in a rented public space,” Brenda Whiteway,

From the Vaults: Anna Maxymiw

by Anna Maxymiw

Anna Maxymiw, contributor to Issue XVII, discusses how writing “glosas” help her enter into dialogues with the dead.

This poem is a combination of themes. It marked the true beginning of my writing about being Ukrainian. It’s a subject matter that is still difficult for me—being half Ukrainian means you are straddling a world,

It’s Always Good to Try New Things

by Tracy Kyncl

Despite the fact that the literary season is slowly winding down for the holidays, some reading series are experimenting with new locations and some are just being born. On November 4th I attended the Rower’s Pub Reading Series, which moved its monthly booking to Measure in the heart of the Annex.

Why Bother, Bernardo Soares?

by André Babyn

The lyrics of alt-rock band Weezer are famously dreamy: they helped inaugurate a generation of teenagers who would rather fret and delay than act. Collectively these teens would come to be known as “emo,” short for “emotional”—in other words, a bunch of passive crybabies (not that there’s anything wrong with that). While attending all-female cover band Sheezer’s annual Hallowe’en show at Lee’s Palace last Thursday,

Rob Ford: Wearing the Wrong Tie Badly

by E. Martin Nolan

This was going to be about empathizing with Rob Ford. Then he wore that tie. I was going to claim that if literature teaches us empathy, maybe it could help us empathize with Ford. But then, by fictionalizing real people, don’t we run the risk of simplifying them and thus making it easier to vilify them?

Learning From Gilmour

by Phoebe Wang

If there were gratifying results from David Gilmour’s interview with Emily Keeler on Hazlitt, they would include the reactions of dismay that populated international, national and local news channels, mainstream online publications, personal blogs and social media in the weeks following. Dozens of teachers, writers, editors and journalists found his “lack of interest” in teaching women writers,

Pivot at the Press Club

by Tracy Kyncl

Pivot Readings are at the core of Toronto’s literary scene. Bi-monthly at the Press Club, writers and readers extricate themselves from their Wednesday slumps and find new and familiar faces tucked into the cozy bar on Dundas West. On Wednesday October 30th Pivot hosted a very diverse line-up that included poetry,